Sat May 15th 2010

After a brief (very brief) warm up Shihan Holmes demonstrated what was to be the theme for the day, flowing and continual movement techniques. He emphasized that you need to keep as close as possible to your opponent, as leaving a space leaves you vulnerable. Also to use their momentum against them, but making it work for you.

As your opponent looms towards you then flowing/sweeping strikes to the head and grabbing of the wrist to pull them down were used to deflect the attack. Variations of where and how to counter the attack were also demonstrated.

Moving on then to blunt weapons, each pair was supplied with a baton type stick. The 2” nearest the tip of a stick or weapon does the most damage, so the emphasis was on staying near to the weapon, but as far away from the tip as possible. When the stick was thrust towards you then the best way to deflect it was to block with the inner part of your arm (NOT the same for a weapon with blade, as this should be deflected with the outer part of the arm) and tilt the wrist over. This uses the muscle as a cushion, and you can slide your arm down the arm to secure the weapon.

Numerous strikes and counters were shown to the eager participants and Shihan Holmes and his assistant mingled with everyone, assisting as much as they could.

He suggested that the best thing to do was to find the technique that worked best for you, and work on that. Any variation on what he’d demonstrated was encouraged, as it was what worked for you was all that mattered.

Once again the day was a great success, as Shihan Holmes incorporates humour and wit as a big part of his teaching – both of which helps everyone to enjoy his courses.

It was a pleasure to be there and watch on the day, I really enjoyed it. Come back soon Shihan Holmes.

By Sensei Livesey